12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ness. If he knew anything or had anything that he thought 

 would help someone else, it was his even without asking, and 

 he never thought of reserving any credit to himself. He was so 

 honest that he expected others to be honest. He apparently 

 made no collection of eggs, and the skins obtained through 

 others and which he so beautifully transformed into mounted 

 specimens, attest his remarkable skill as a taxidermist. He 

 was not only in the habit of sending bird pictures to his friends 

 and relatives but of giving away mounted birds, some of them 

 artistically grouped under glass cases, one of which the writer 

 owns. The specimens in this case are in a remarkably good 

 condition. They consist principally of foreign birds, the central 

 one being an English Cuckoo, and all are mounted in wonder- 

 fully life-like postures. 



His knowledge of trees, flowers, and even minerals was con- 

 siderable, as his little book on "Trees, Plants and Flowers" 

 shows. He lived at a time when the ornithologists of Philadel- 

 phia were most alive in the search of bird knowledge, and ex- 

 tended collecting trips to the West and to Central America were 

 indulged in by those men whose fame has come down to us as 

 the discoverers of many birds well known to us to-day. 



He was an intimate correspondent of George N. Lawrence 

 who supplied him to some extent with Hummingbirds from the 

 tropics; also of J. G. Bell who made a large collection of Hum- 

 mingbirds, J. H. Mcllvain, John Cassin, Spencer F. Baird, 

 V. G. Audubon and Asa Gray the botanist. 



On account of declining health he was obliged to give up the 

 business of dry goods which he carried on with his brothers, 

 and to seek the country air. For several years, beginning in 

 the spring of 1856, he spent much time with his brother Thomas, 

 who had taken to farming at Rockton near West Chester. His 

 winters were spent with his mother and aunts at 1309 Filbert 

 St., where his niece Mrs. Joseph P. Remington, daughter of 

 John Collins, well remembers his studious work on the Hum- 

 mingbird books. 



Records show that he visited Newport, R. I. , June 13, 1856, 

 where he went especially to attend the Yearly Meeting of the 

 Friends. On July 23, 1856, he was at Kirkwood, Penna., 



